


Nemesis

by platonic_boner



Category: Dark Matter (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 14:07:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21375355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/platonic_boner/pseuds/platonic_boner
Summary: That soulmate AU where you have the name of your soulmate on one wrist, the name of your nemesis on the other, and no way to tell which is which.
Relationships: Sarah/Three | Marcus Boone, Three | Marcus Boone/Two | Portia Lin
Comments: 15
Kudos: 24





	Nemesis

The Raza tears through the galaxy and leaves behind a wide trail of corpses.

Marcus used to feel a strange sort of kinship with most of those corpses, the ones that shared the name on his wrist. That was back when Shrike and Jasper were on the Raza, making jokes about which of the three of them would win Portia in the end. (Because of course neither of them believed that Portia could be their nemesis, let alone their killer; she must be their soulmate.)

He’d even felt a bit of that kinship with Shrike and Jasper when Portia had finally killed them, unsmiling and mercenary and terrifyingly badass. Marcus had felt like he’d be one of them someday - one of the bodies Portia barely glanced at, and sometimes walked over. One of the many people she didn’t spare a moment’s thought on, even though her name had been written on them for decades.

But now? Now, Portia’s someone who sits at the mess table laughing with him, and challenges him to shooting competitions on deserted moons. Who quietly commiserates about Sarah, and sometimes shares her secrets in return for his. Now, Marcus knows he isn’t gonna be like those corpses. Portia’s gonna think about it when she kills him.

She’s gonna really mean it.

He sticks around anyways because that's how fate works, isn't it? Portia's his nemesis. She's gonna kill him no matter what, and he's never been half good enough to stop her, so that's that. He might as well have a good time until then, and he is having a good time on the Raza. So. He stays.

He stays and blows shit up and steals stuff and sees for his own eyes why Portia's name is scrawled across the galaxy. Why royal emperors and corporate gods and matchless mercenaries live in fear of her.

But even as Marcus sees why she’s feared, he forgets to be afraid of her himself.

*

Sometimes before they take a job with someone new, something that sounds dangerous, she'll tap the band covering his wrist and raise her eyebrows. 

_Is this the one that kills you_, she's asking, and it's weirdly touching. A reminder she doesn't want him dead, yet. She doesn’t do it with Ryo, or with any of the temporary crew members that pass through; just Marcus.

“Not this time,” he always says.

*

Once, just once, he questions it. Portia falls asleep on his shoulder on a stake-out, and Marcus stares down at the top of her head and is overwhelmed with so much fondness he wonders, could he have gotten it wrong? Could Portia be his soulmate?

He dismisses the thought immediately. Portia’s far more likely to kill him than love him. He might not feel just like one of those corpses, but he is, really. Besides, his other wrist is where his soulmate’s name is written: _Sarah Farmer_. She was the love of his life, and she’s all but dead. She has no time left to become his nemesis.

*

Ferrous hires them to sort out a mining colony, and Portia taps his wrist before they get into the pods.

“Not this time,” Marcus says, and he’ll never remember it to know that he lied, because this is where it starts, that inevitable path to his real nemesis.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't decided whether this is a one shot, or the prologue to a fic where Three tries to figure out what the names on his wrists mean. Let me know if you'd wanna read that?


End file.
